Author
Topic: Guild Wars 2 (Read 14234 times)

So is anyone pre-ordering and going to get to go into game 3 days ahead of non pre-orders? I did yesterday and am on fence if I want to blow $150 on the collectors edition for the art prints, figurine, etc....

Heard this thing looks amazing and that they have double the number of servers compared to the original. Also, original took 2Gb disk space, new one will require 25Gb of disk space!

I've been eyeballing this one for years (again). I had a hard time getting into the first one because you were pretty much forced to play with others. Soloing wasn't really an option after the game started proper.Obviously, that sort of thinking is pretty much gone now for these games. Tera (another MMO I've just read about) blatantly says that you can solo the game if you like.Anyway, the second one looks extremely promising. But I'll be waiting for reviews before plunking down any cash for it.

I'll be playing the beta this weekend, as well. It definitely looks interesting, with some new ideas for the MMO genre in general. The first GW left me cold, as it was too heavily instanced, and felt very restrictive in where you could go, had no crafting or professions, and the classes didn't feel all that special.

It looks like the new game has learned a lot from those limitations, and gives you the ability to solo very well. One key difference in this game is the elimination of the holy trinity of the tank-damage dealer-healer convention. There is no dedicated healer class in GW2. Every class has the ability to go forth and do effective damage and use skills to help with survivability. Not only does that change the game when you're out by yourself, but it has the potential to make raiding and grouping up much more flexible and fun. That alone makes it worth a look.

The preview that Altus mentions also shows the art direction of the new game that I always thought the original hinted at, but couldn't pull off, so it will be interesting to go exploring in this new version of Tyria.

Well I tried a Charr briefly as well as a Norn and Human. It was interesting, being able to swim and jump. I guess depending how much you worked on leveling very early in this beta depends how you survived some of the tough enemies to solo. I got killed so much I was fighting in my underwear (game char lol) due to armor being decimated from the enemies pummeling me (the burning orphanage) but I did finish it off solo. I didn't team with anyone, think one person rezzed me/healed me out in the grasslands. Multiple storylines depending on what character you played, etc... Interesting that we get pistols and rifles in it now too. It seemed to be missing a lot of stuff still as I thought this was kind of a limited beta in that respect, not all races could be played for instance. I didn't look into any of the crafting stuff because it appears I'll have to be doing a fair bit of reading to determine which ones to work on depending on the class I play.

Didn't get to play as much as I'd hoped, but I did manage to roll a Norn Elementalist and play around in the snow for awhile. The world is much more expansive and interesting to explore. There are real, enormous mountain ranges to climb. Everything isn't at the same elevation anymore. Although the world is still sectioned off by instancing, the areas are much larger and don't feel confined. The cities(what little I saw of them) are huge. Hoelbrak, the Norn capital city, is quite massive, with many levels and shops, traders, banks and such. I only took a peek at the other cities through the Asuran Gates, which link the large cities of GW2, but they also look massive, as well. The Sylvari and Asuran cities were not a part of this beta.

A nice touch in the cities is the use of location points which, once you have discovered that location on the world map, you can select and fast-travel to that location. Since the cities are so big, it's a nice option to use these when you're bouncing from one area to another for trade or crafting. This also works for any location in the game world you've discovered. I guess this is to make up for the fact that ArenaNet doesn't seem to believe in mounts of any kind in their game.

There are many different professions; Tailoring, Leatherworking, Armorsmithing, Jewelcrafting, the usual MMO fare. You can only have two active professions at a time, but you can switch whenever you want. The nice part here is that if you dropped Tailoring to pick up Platemaking and then decide later that you want to go back to Tailoring, you will pick it up at the same skill level you left off at, with all the crafting plans you learned still available to you. You don't have to start from scratch and relearn the skills you had.

The art direction is spectacular. Everywhere you look is a screenshot waiting to be snapped. Each civilization has its own unique architectural style, and I'm looking forward to exploring everywhere in the finished game. Although at this point, I may stop playing any future beta events, since I'd like to be surprised and enjoy it knowing my exploits and professions will mean something, rather than doing too much in the beta, only to have it all wiped when the game goes live.

TL;DR, I'm very impressed so far and look forward to a great game "when it's done."

Final beta weekend this coming friday through sunday. They are wiping previous characters and opening the final 2 races to be able to check them out/play them in their respective areas. Release date is scheduled for 8/28/12.

I'll probably try out the Sylvari this time around as they are the race I am least likely to play when the game launches. I just can't get into Elvish characters, although the area itself should be fun to explore. I'm trying to limit how much I see and do, because I want to discover most things for the first time when the game is live.

I'm leaning towards Norn as my main character, but want to try out more classes to get a feel for what is the most fun. After that, we only have to wait another month for release.

Elvish characters? They don't look Elvish to me. Same kind of skill/character setup as the rest. I didn't do much on the Asuran side (I checked out both). Just can't wait till it is officially out next month. I have to probably go read up on character building to understand the choices I make before jumping into it so I have a better idea what to choose depending on class/play type I will be going for initially.

Well I got a little time in this weekend. Lvl 12 Norn Mesmer for a character. I am on Stormbluff Isles for world map location. I may be moving it today which I think is the last day of free move. Mobs are a bit harder to kill like during the beta, i.e. ones that are 2 lvls or higher above you can kill you if you don't do the drop/roll/evade moves. And it appears you only have enough energy to do 2 of them at my current level. Not sure if that increases as you level higher. Buddy saw a lvl 80 next to him yesterday....

Grabbed a Great Sword (shoulda kept one that dropped...vs buying) and does magic attacks?! But I picked up 4 skills on it in a short period of time which was interesting. Started on some of the crafting stuff and found that you can access your bank from them as well as from Lions Arch area.

Well started an Ele now (Siren Kometh, mesmer is Madness Kometh) and it's kinda fun to play. Guildies have a char or two at lvl 80 already.....haven't been in as much as I want to (still doing PWI) but there's lots to do (crafting alone is insane) and have to make coin to convert to gold to get items from store vs paying real cash I think (keys to open the black * chests).

Wow no chatter about it since September? Sheesh! Cursed Shore is insane with number of Risen there, you can barely get too far before being attacked by lots of them. Mesmer is lvl 80 finally as has been my ele. Working a Guardian now, he's almost 48. Grinding nightly to try and lvl up 1 or 2 levels and farming mats for crafting/bank mats.

Ele, Mes and Guardian are lvl 80, got some nice armor/acutriments for those 3 but need to grind for coin to get runes mats to make them or buy them due to the cost of them alone... Living Story was updated and I did 2 parts of it last night (watch discussion between Rytlok and the 2 others then assist them in battles). So it was a fairly big update recently (again). Got a human ranger and sylvari thief (finding them rather weak (thief) in general). Still grinding away and curse shore is a bear solo...

This past weekend they had a free preview if anyone knew of it. Content being added, Jubilee guantlet was a pita and haven't finished it...not sure I will!

Still trudging along, Ele almost done storyline, just have Zhaitan to beat up/kill to finish her storyline. Rest eventually...not in a rush, mainly grinding for mats to make better gear/trinkets as I leveled up. I have master craftsman (400) but they are raising that cap to 500 by years end which means making ascended/legendary gears but need all sorts of stuff to craft them = won't be cheap or fast unless you got a lot of money to blow. Some items in TP still 2K+ gold! NUTS!

Wow, no one playing GW2 at all here? So many content updates, and Wintersday is here (for a couple more weeks I think)! Dungeons are nuts, been doing them a bit more finally...need someone who knows them to help you set up utility skills for maximum efficiency/damage/defense though. 2 characters completed the storyline finally and still need 6% more mapped for Been There, Done That title....lol

Haha, a buddy from PWI is now in Never Winter Nights Online (also put out by PWI folks). I may look into it. But with GW2 and the end of the Scarlett story (been going on for like almost a year now) it's interesting (1 of the 2 areas I've done 4/5 lanes for the living story so need to get last one done and get more items for her lair for the chest(s) in it = multiple runs on both areas...). But I like its tweakability for stuff and the current new events are actually fun (priors were ok too) and it gets insane, lag, overflow, etc...but i am still in there grinding away. I have 7 or 8 lvl 80 chars now (ele, war, guard, ranger, mes, thief (newest), necro, mesmer. Been updating warrior (asuran female ball of fury lmao) but there is a nerf coming for berserker builds, change to crit to ferocity, etc...just a start from the devs to better *balance* things in *their* minds for the game. That's already pissed off a lot of people from their comments. But from what I understand berserker will lose about 8-10% max dmg....and runes/sigils are also going to be mucked with. And I heard Celestial stat stuff is going to get hosed...that means any Ascended stuff you made will take a big hit....

Anyways, Pain Kometh, Scary/Siren/Quickshot/Sneaky/Madness/Cutey Kometh are my in-game char names, send a friend list invite if you are in game and send me an email so I know who it is and we'll figure out when to party together!